Posted on 26 July 2010 | No Comment

I love finding inspiring entrepreneurs an business practices, and kids playing is a constant source for my inspiration, too. So, when I came across The Business Playground | Where Creativity and Commerce Collide, I was immediately excited about the combination of some of my favorite muses. I heard about the book a few weeks back, and after some online checking, found there is an associated blog for celebrating inspiring ideas, plus a free download of one of the chapters!

I haven’t even read the whole book yet and already, I’m inspired. The chapter available online talks about brainstorming and generating as many ideas as possible. The call their recommended approach to brainstorms “idea spaghetti” or thinking divergently, which means:

Well, there are two types of thinking: convergent and divergent. Convergent thinking is thinking that helps us converge on a single answer – e.g. ‘the answer is 42’; while divergent thinking has many possible answers.

Sure, seems like a plausible enough idea. Authors Simmons and Stewart encourage grown ups not to be embarrassed about our ideas, silly or not. They point out that children more willingly blurt out seemingly “unflattering” ideas while adults try to maintain looking good in front of other adults. To me the best part is not that they introduce this concept and practice, they introduce a game to play with other adults, co-workers, or board members! Games at work? Yes!

While the ideas introduced in The Business Playground make sense for innovation and making more productive and profitable businesses, the authors also remind us to have fun. Just because we’re working doesn’t mean we have to approach things the “right” way or be bored with how things happen. Playing is something kids remember to do a lot better than adults do and it isn’t necessary to cut the play out of our adult lives or work. Who says work can’t be fun and hard work can’t be a lot of playing? We’re the only ones who can make or hold us back from making our lives happy, exhilarating, and a joy to be in. And since we spend so much time at work and making a living, might as well make it a great time there.